


What Allison Reynolds Knows About Belonging

by loose_canon



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Allison Has Feelings, Allison's POV, Canon Compliant, F/F, Getting Together, If You're Not a Coward, M/M, Mentions of Upperclassmen Being Adorable, People Do Mean Things to Cars, Renee Patches Allison Up, The King's Men Extra Scene, canon character death mention, smoochin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-10 00:33:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20126416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loose_canon/pseuds/loose_canon
Summary: It had been a bad day.First, some pathetic Raven bootlickers who couldn’t handle one mouthy asshole destroyed her car. And then Aaron decided to use Seth’s death to keep needling at Neil.Allison slaps Aaron and gets manhandled by Andrew. Afterward, Renee takes her up to their room to clean her up. Allison works through her feelings and has a realization that's been a long time coming.An add-on scene to THE KING'S MEN.





	What Allison Reynolds Knows About Belonging

It had been a bad day.

First, some pathetic Raven bootlickers who couldn’t handle one mouthy asshole destroyed her car. And then Aaron decided to use Seth’s death to keep needling at Neil.

“Right. So Seth was a one-off, then?”

In an instant, Allison had stepped past her friends and backhanded Aaron as hard as she could. He staggered, gaping at her. Good. She hoped he’d have a bruise for the next week.

Andrew moved and then Allison was all pain. He wrenched her arm behind her back with a sick twist and shoved her to the ground. Her knees hit the asphalt hard. Bastard was lucky she wasn’t wearing her new leather leggings or he’d owe her big time. She tried to get back up but a heavy hand landed on the back of her neck and pushed her down. Gravel bit into her palm and knees, and her eyes welled at the intensity of the pain.

“Minyard, you motherfucker,” she breathed out. Her arm twisted so far back she couldn’t focus on anything but pain knifing through her shoulder.

Then Renee’s arms were around her. Allison tried to focus on Renee kneeling beside her, her steady voice. She inhaled, and the smells that meant Renee was near—soap and cherry blossoms and pine—comforted her. Voices above Allison blurred and spots crowded her vision.

She gritted her teeth. She would get through this.

“Andrew. Give her back to me.” Renee’s voice was gentle and firm, and then she was whispering into Allison’s hair. “I’ve got you, Allison. It’s okay. I’m here.”

The vice-like grip released. Allison’s arm hung limp as Renee guided her to her feet and gently brushed the shards of rock from her knees. Dan and Matt reached for her as Allison wiped the water that had leaked from her eyes with a dirty hand. Wymack had appeared and was ripping into the monsters, Dan throwing in her own two cents, but Allison couldn't focus enough to care. She leaned on Matt while Renee stood guard in front of her.

“You okay, Al?” Dan said, her hands still on her hips and lips pressed together in displeasure.

“I’m fine.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and winced at the movement.

Allison’s heart wouldn’t slow down, and her shoulder ached. But nothing compared to the anger she felt building in her chest. She glared at Aaron before Dan and Matt walked her back to her car. He had the good grace to look embarrassed, though his gaze darted back to his brother whose face was as impassive as ever.

She should hate Andrew, but at least he didn’t pretend, didn’t refer to Seth’s death with soft allusions, talked to Allison with the same blunt carelessness he did anyone else. Allison was so sick of this bullshit. She was sick of being handled with kid gloves. Seth was dead. Riko killed him. But no one would say it. Allison wanted to say it, wanted to scream it. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. She saw his body with her own two eyes and she was still here, damn it. They didn’t see her anymore. They just saw what was left in the wake of Riko and the Ravens and Seth’s addictions and this whole fucking mess.

Allison was done. Let the police figure this out on their own. She was going to buy herself a new toy anyway.

Allison leaned into Renee. “Can we get out of here?”

Renee met her gaze, searching for something, then nodded. They moved away from the clumps of angry athletes. Neil caught Allison’s eye on the way out and for once he wasn’t looking away. She knew he was the one who got through to Andrew, muttering in German like wannabe lovelorn spies.

Allison put on her most haughty Reynolds heiress expression. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry.” Neil looked surprised he said it. He looked like he was sorry for a lot of things. Allison didn’t have time to deal with his guilty conscience or the emotional bandwidth to explain that it wasn’t Neil’s fault Riko was a murdering psychopath.

They were Foxes. This came with the territory.

Dan started telling Neil and Andrew off again before Allison could reply, so she just nudged Renee and they slipped away.

Renee walked her up to their room with an arm around Allison’s waist. It wasn't strictly necessary, but she leaned into the contact. Renee insisted Allison sit on the closed toilet lid while she looked at her knees and her palm.

“I’m fine, Renee.”

“You’ve got a cut here,” Renee said. She pointed to the slit of red surrounded by imprints of bits of gravel on Allison’s left knee. Renee’s hair swung as she moved, a sheet of white dipped in rainbow colors. “Let me put Neosporin and a band-aid on it, at least for today.”

“Fine.”

Allison watched Renee work, the careful movements of her fingers, the callouses and little scars around Renee’s knuckles. Allison felt the anger in her chest slowly deflate. Renee’s cheekbones and forehead were high and regal, her unconscious expression serene. But Allison knew from experience Renee's calm was only a few seconds from a grin, especially when Allison did her Wymack impression or slipped in a dirty comment.

Something in Allison settled. Renee was unchanging. She didn’t look at Allison differently after Seth died. She didn't insist things would get better even when Allison broke down in her arms again and again. She was just there, constant.

“Here.” Renee held out a glass of water.

Somehow the cool liquid helped offset the burn of Allison’s muscles. She drank it hungrily, drops escaping her mouth and dripping off her chin onto her lap. And then Renee was there, face level with Allison, wiping the water from her chin with a gentle thumb.

Allison couldn’t stand it. Her adrenaline came rushing back and she clasped a hand over Renee’s, holding it to her cheek. She turned her face and kissed Renee’s palm, slow, deliberate.

She had kissed Renee before—on the shoulder, on the cheek. Dan, too. She did their makeup and pecked them on the forehead when she was done, smudged highlighter be damned. Even Matt got his share of cheek kisses when she could reach him. Allison had always been affectionate with her friends. They linked arms and fell all over each other laughing, slept in each other’s beds. Matt did, too, when they spent the night drinking and he was too tired to go back to his room. Even Neil had relaxed around Allison to the point where she could hug him or slide a protective arm around his shoulders. They belonged to each other.

Renee slept in Allison’s bed often after Seth died, smoothing her hair and rubbing her back while she cried, holding her when her grief felt so big it would open up and swallow her. It was a habit now, and Allison liked waking up with an arm wrapped around Renee.

Renee’s eyes snapped to Allison’s. Allison liked having her attention like this. She realized she wanted to keep it as long as she could. Allison kissed Renee’s wrist, then captured Renee’s other hand and brought the palm to her mouth, then the wrist.

“Allison,” Renee said, her voice quiet.

It wasn’t a reproach. Allison took courage from that. She placed another kiss on the inside of Renee’s arm where the vein turned purple under her skin.

“Allison.” More insistent this time. Renee cupped Allison’s jaw, a thousand emotions playing on her face. Affection and desire and grief and confusion and hesitation.

Allison didn’t want to think. She didn’t want Renee to think. All she knew was that this felt right, that she wanted to be as close to Renee as humanly possible. That Renee deserved this. That Allison needed to show her how perfect she was right now, and nothing else mattered.

“Do you trust me?” Allison said.

Renee searched Allison’s face. “I do, but—”

“But?”

Renee smiled sadly. “You’ve just been through a lot.”

“So?”

“So you’re high on adrenaline.”

“I know what I’m doing. I know what I want.”

Renee dropped her hands and looked away.

Heat rose in Allison’s cheeks. “Don’t, Renee. Not you. Everyone else can treat me like I can’t handle myself, but not you.” Her hands had curled into fists.

Renee sat back on her heels. “I know how strong you are, Allison. I just don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

Allison scoffed. Renee was the strongest person she knew, and the idea of her being weak was ridiculous. “Strong enough for what?”

“For whatever is happening here.” Renee motioned between the two of them.

Nothing would happen here if Renee kept up like this. Allison reached for her and brought her back to eye level. She tucked a stray strand of blonde dipped in soft blue behind Renee’s ear. “Do you not want this?”

Renee looked down. “I want to be more than an adrenaline high, Allison.”

“You are,” Allison said. Renee was everything, but how do you tell someone that? Allison didn’t usually have a problem saying exactly what she thought. Finally, she settled on “I know how I feel.” She was so close she could feel Renee’s soft exhale on her own lips. Her eyes roamed Renee’s light brown skin, her freckles, the little acne scars that dotted her temples. “I know how I feel about you, Renee Walker.”

A small smile bloomed on Renee’s face. Finally.

It was all Allison needed to close the final distance. Renee’s mouth was so soft and perfect, Allison almost couldn't take it. Renee cupped Allison’s jaw, her hands tender and gentle. They kissed again and again, but it wasn’t enough. The porcelain clinked beneath Allison as she leaned into Renee, her kisses turning urgent. Then Renee was pulling Allison to her feet and pushing her up against the door, kissing beneath her jaw and down her neck. Allison’s heart was a livewire. Every touch of lips on skin was a shock. Allison brought Renee’s face back to her own and pulled her into a deep kiss. She tried to put all her tenderness and wonder and gratitude and adoration into that kiss. She caught Renee’s bottom lip between her teeth and gently pulled.

Renee leaned her forehead onto Allison’s and they both paused to catch their breath.

Renee was so beautiful. Allison ran a finger across the places where the lights shone on her cheekbones, her dark eyebrows, the thin, soft skin of her eyelid. She ran her hand through Renee’s hair.

Hope and fear tumbled in Allison’s stomach. She wasn’t used to wanting. It wasn’t in her nature. But to have this with Renee...she wanted it so badly her gut ached with the feeling even as her chest inflated with possibility.

Renee was watching her back, expression thoughtful but otherwise inscrutable.

“Say something,” Allison whispered.

“I don’t know what to say.” Renee stepped back and leaned against the sink. She put her fingertips to her lips in an unconscious gesture. “How long?”

Allison leaned against the door. She felt exposed, but in a good way. Allison wanted Renee to see, though Renee always had. She would tell Renee anything she wanted to know. “How long what?”

“How long have you known?”

“I don’t know,” Allison said. Her feelings for Renee were bottomless, but it had taken her so long to realize she was treading water. “Today? Always?”

Renee laughed and it sounded like relief.

“You’re the only one who sees me for what I am,” Allison said, her voice quiet. She needed Renee to know, to understand.

“Well, you’re pretty hard to miss, Allison Reynolds.” Renee was back in Allison’s space, her grin wide and her eyes on Allison. “And not bad to look at.”

Renee laced her fingers through Allison’s and kissed her so sweetly she forgot about her ruined car and the pain in her shoulder and the tiny asshole who didn’t know when to back off. Renee had all her attention, and she had all of Renee’s. It was exactly what she wanted.

It was a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)
> 
> I'm on tumblr @sapphicrenee.


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